Thumbs up to the Fayette County Humane Society staff and volunteers who served a special Christmas dinner to more than 100 dogs and cats housed at the shelter.
Thumbs up also go to contributors from the community who made the special holiday meal possible.
The Christmas meal included turkey, pumpkin purée, cookies, whipped cream, and other trimmings.
Serving the animals a holiday meal began at Thanksgiving, said Fallyn Wakefield, executive director of the Fayette County Humane Society.
“We just started it this year on Thanksgiving,” Wakefield said. “And it’s going to be a tradition that we’re going to try to carry through.
“It’s just thinking about these dogs on Christmas,” she said. “They have no families, so we try to make it the best we can here for them.”
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Thumbs up to the steady growth in the number of visitors to the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve since the park’s redesignation four years ago.
On Dec. 27, 2020, the New River Gorge National River officially became the 63rd national park after the U.S. Congress passed funding through the New River Gorge National Park Designation Act.
Encompassing more than 70,000 acres of land along a 53-mile stretch of the New River, the park extends from the Bluestone Dam in Summers County, up through Raleigh County, and on to its most northern point at Hawks Nest Lake in Fayette County.
“Typically after a redesignation, numbers will settle out at about a 20-percent increase, but we’re almost double that,” said Eve West, the park’s chief of interpretation.
West noted the park is seeing people who visit simply to visit and are not just passing through.
“It used to be, New River was just a place people passed through to get to Shenandoah, to get to the Smokies and other areas, but we have truly become a destination point now, we are a place where people will come, spend three days a week, you know, it has really changed that a lot,” she said.
West said national parks are wonderful places that bring people together to explore the vastness of nature this country has to offer, and they are proud West Virginia can now be a major contributing factor in that.
“I think that’s a really, really important piece of what we do,” she said. “You know, it’s hard to say no to nature, it’s a place you can get out, be healthy, find solace, it’s a place you can have a bonding experience with friends and family, and I think we offer a lot of really, really good opportunities for the United States population right now.”
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Thumbs up to the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute for providing patients greater access to a groundbreaking Alzheimer’s disease treatment.
In 2020, approximately 38,000 West Virginians – or 10.2 percent of adults over the age of 65 in the state – had Alzheimer’s. Nearly 14 percent of West Virginians who are 45 and older have subjective cognitive decline, diagnosed when a person experiences memory loss or confusion, but performs normally on cognitive tests.
All patients receive an initial workup and examination at the RNI Memory Health Clinic, including MRI and PET imaging, blood tests, physical and neurological exams, and a neuropsychological evaluation.
A multidisciplinary team then develops a treatment plan. Patients then receive the IV infusion at the infusion center closest to them. Return trips to Morgantown are only necessary for follow-up visits and MRI imaging to check for side effects.
Along with the Cancer Institute, Wheeling Hospital, and Garrett Regional Medical Center, the program has expanded to include WVU Medicine Princeton Community Hospital, Berkeley Medical Center in Martinsburg, and Thomas Hospitals in Charleston.
“For patients on a Leqembi treatment regimen, there are already a lot of stressors in their lives and for their families,” said Stephen Cox, D.O., neurologist at Princeton Community Hospital’s Neurology Clinic. “Having access to this Alzheimer’s treatment right here in our region of southern West Virginia and southwest Virginia eliminates the need for hours of travel to an academic medical center. This not only eases the emotional and physical burden on families, but also improves the likelihood that patients can consistently attend all their appointments, which is crucial for the effectiveness of this treatment.”
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Thumbs up to Oceana Middle School eighth-graders, who are among the four state winners in the annual First Lady Student Ornament Competition. Their ornament is displayed in the Great Hall of the Culture Center in Charleston along with the other submitted ornaments. The competition had 144 entries from 23 West Virginia counties. Each winning class was awarded a $100 gift card to purchase art supplies.
Here’s to nurturing the creativity of youngsters.
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Thumbs up to two Wyoming County schools – Oceana Middle and Pineville Middle – that have been named state finalists in the 15th annual Samsung Solve for Tomorrow STEM competition.
Additional state finalists include East Fairmont Middle School and two teams at Morgantown High School.
Each state finalist wins a $2,500 technology prize package for their school.
Three national winners will be selected from the 50 state winners to be named in March.
Each national winner will receive a $100,000 prize package – part of a $2 million prize pool.
The annual competition is designed to empower students to use the power of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) to create innovative solutions addressing critical issues in their communities.
By applying Problem-based Learning (PBL) principles, environmental stewardship, and social impact entrepreneurship, the competition engages sixth through 12th grades students in active, hands-on learning that can be applied to real-world problems – such as the climate crisis, mental health and wellness, and school safety issues – in an effort to make STEM skills more tangible and showcase its value both in and outside the classroom.
Here’s to the hard work and extra effort of all the participating students and their teachers.
Compiled by Mary Catherine Brooks
for The Register-Herald